First responders in Montgomery County, Maryland, are accepting toys to bring to children in North Carolina impacted by Hurricane Helene.
Holiday shoppers at Westfield Montgomery, Westfield Wheaton and the Clarksburg Premium Outlets will likely notice big trucks on Friday and Saturday.
The Montgomery County Fire & Rescue Service and members of Maryland Task Force 1 are using the trucks to collect toy donations from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. both days.
Then, they'll drive the donations down to North Carolina on Sunday to hand them over to Toys for Tots in the region where flood waters from Hurricane Helene killed dozens and devastated communities in September.
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"We spent a good deal of time in western North Carolina with the task force. It's complete devastation. It's some of the worst we've seen, certainly in my time with the task force. Entire communities completely wiped away. Homes — everything. Just gone," said Bradley Wilt, a firefighter and paramedic for MCFRS.
"This year, we decided after this deployment we were gonna do a toy drive for the kids, try to make their Christmas a little bit brighter," Wilt said. "The Toys for Tots serve western North Carolina, six counties. Some of the hardest hit down in that area and they have an exceptional need this year. So we wanted to help out with that."
First responders organizing the effort said the entire community came together to make it happen.
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The moving trucks they’re using to collect the toys were donated by Blake & Sons Moving, and other local companies donated boxes to pack the toys, as well as a 53-foot tractor trailer to transport the toys to North Carolina.
